After a week of playing in theaters, it’s safe to say that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one of the most successful 2023 new movie releases so far. In addition to being met with critical acclaim, including CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg giving it a perfect 5 out of 5 stars in his review, the sequel had one of 2023’s best opening weekends at the box office. However, for those who’ve already seen Across the Spider-Verse on the big screen, you might consider going back for a second round, as an updated version of the movie is now playing following sound complaints.
Various moviegoers had complained about low audio levels during Across the Spider-Verse’s opening scene, which reintroduced Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, the Spider-Woman of Earth-65. While Variety learned that this sound issue only impacted “a handful of theaters,” Sony Pictures has nonetheless updated “all the prints” of the movie. Writer/producer Phil Lord addressed this issue during the opening weekend on Twitter, suggesting that people inquire with a theater employee about turning the volume up from 7 to 7.5, but evidently that won’t be necessary anymore thanks to the updated version of Across the Spider-Verse now being presented.
It seems like this was just a minor hiccup with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s release, although Variety’s report mentioned that “it’s not entirely uncommon for distributors to send re-edited prints to exhibitors” if, as the source put it, “the opportunity presents itself.” Still, it’s good this issue was handled relative early into the sequel’s release rather than be addressed weeks later. Even with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts now playing and the likes of The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One soon, Across the Spider-Verse will surely get plenty of eyeballs during that time, so fixing the audio issue quickly was the right call.
Following roughly four and a half years after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s release, Across the Spider-Verse sees Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales reuniting with Gwen Stacy and Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker, as well as meeting Spider-people like Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae’s Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, Karan Soni’s Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India and Daniel Kaluuya’s Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk, all while dealing with Jason Schwartzman’s The Spot. Behind the scenes, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson directed the feature, and Phil Lord wrote the script with Christopher Miller and Dave Callahan. Those of you who’ve already seen the movie can read our breakdown of Across the Spider-Verse’s ending, and for those of you who haven’t seen it yet and don’t mind minor spoilers, you may be interested to learn that a 14-year-old animated one of its funniest scenes.
With the events of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse out of the way, Beyond the Spider-Verse is slated to come out on March 29, 2024. However, there are some clues suggesting that a delay is possible, so if that ends up being the case, we’ll let you know.
